Hi friend, When I started my eco-garden, my yard was absolutely overtaken by invasive plants. English ivy, burdock, wintercreeper, Amur honeysuckle, rose of Sharon, ground ivy, and garlic mustard just to name a few. And the first step toward getting rid of the invasive species and letting in volunteer native plants is knowing what’s growing. It’s common for gardeners to just broadly pull “weeds” without really knowing what they’re pulling. Then you end up accidentally killing free native...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Hi friend, We've all heard that monarch butterfly populations are declining. But what should we do (and not do) to help them? The way we protect monarch butterflies is by restoring their wild habitat, avoiding insecticides, and planting native. When humans try to further interfere with nature by captive rearing monarchs or keeping caterpillars away from predators, it does more harm than good to the overall population. It’s easy to think, “Well, monarch populations are decreasing, so the...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Hi friend, Seeing butterflies always makes my day/week/life better. They're such a wonderful reminder of nature's beauty and the importance of conserving it. I looked out my front window a couple days ago while doing my morning routine of giving the dogs and cats their breakfast, and saw two swallowtails in my native garden! Of course, I had to run outside to get photos 😅📸 They're dark morph eastern tiger swallowtails (Papilio glaucus). Most butterflies of this species are primarily yellow...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, Galls! What are they? Should you be concerned if you see something like this on your plants? A gall is an abnormal growth on exterior plant tissue (leaves, branches, flowers, etc.). They may look like tumors, warts, balls, or lumps, and vary widely in shape, size, color, etc. They’re complex and highly organized structures, and science still has a lot to learn about them. Most galls are caused by insects and other invertebrates like wasps, midges, aphids, mites, etc. either feeding...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi friend, I get asked a lot about how to figure out what species are native to your area. So I wanted to share resources for folks in the USA and Canada. I've updated this list to include more resources, as well as some Canada-specific resources for Canadian gardeners. 🌻 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 The National Wildlife Federation has an excellent tool called the Native Plant Finder. It shows you what native species support the most wildlife in your zip code - these are called “keystone” species. 🌻 🇺🇸 The NWF has...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, It’s a common misconception that you need to spend a lot of money to grow a native garden (or my preferred term, an eco-garden). In reality, it’s much cheaper than a traditional garden. Eco-gardening means applying sustainable and regenerative practices to your yard. This can look like using materials already on site, making your own compost, and relying on natural processes to do a lot of the work. It’s been a little over three years since I started transforming my yard. My front...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hi friend, As I post more on social media about the problems caused by invasive plants, I realize how much misunderstanding there is around these issues. I always get a little discouraged when I see firsthand how misinformed the general public is about how nature works. But I also understand that it's a systemic issue. We aren't taught about these things. I recently made this post on Facebook and Instagram, showing a handful of common invasive species in North America. For some reason, people...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, Did you know that one of the most invasive trees in the eastern half of the United States was introduced on purpose by the US government? That’s right, the smelly Callery pear and its man-made cultivar the ‘Bradford’ pear were both cultivated intentionally by the US Department of Agriculture. Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) is a tree that’s native to China and Vietnam and was first introduced to the US by the US Dept of Agriculture in 1916 to breed with the common European pear...
6 months ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, When I first started studying the ecological impacts of lawns and non-native plants, one of the most surprising facts I found was that “Kentucky bluegrass” (Poa pratensis) isn’t even native to anywhere in North America - it’s from Europe and Asia. I’ve lived in Kentucky my entire life, but for some reason, I had to go to graduate school to learn this. And whenever I tell fellow Kentuckians about this, they’re equally shocked. Bluegrass is actually even on KY’s official list of...
6 months ago • 1 min read